El Posto – Western Winds in Eastern Lands of Delhi

East Delhi or Jamna paar as people from other parts of Delhi call it, can be easily termed as the deprived lands of Delhi. Though I keep hearing about the street food options in that area, but the restaurant scene has never been able to excite me. So when I received an email telling me about El Posto and inviting me for a review, I jumped on the offer. Was excited to see some western food in that part of town.

El Posto seems to position itself as Italian and Spanish place, however I doubt they do any of them in a authentic way. The food that they serve is definitely heard towards Indian palette, has no health factor and is delicious, well mostly.

Bakery’s Showcase

They have a decent looking coffee machine, so I am assuming they do decent coffee.

They sell fresh breads

Fresh cookies

Walking in the place, it does have a premium feel to it with Bakery and Cafe on ground floor and first floor being what they say is fine dining. However as far as aesthetics go could feel the money being poured in, however the first floor definitely lacked the finer details and the premium feel falls apart on a closer look.

Coming to the most important part now, food. They do not serve alcohol and have no immediate plans of doing that. We started off with ordering 3 drinks from their mocktail menu and couple of shakes they have on offer. The fruit pastry shake though very filling and thick lacked presentation and felt more like a plain vanilla shake. Personally I liked the taste of it, however my two dining partners Shashank Arora & Shweta Mittal felt that it was too plain. the Chocolate shake named AK Choco 47 was definitely very rich in chocolate flavor and I found no reason to complain the mocktails the drink called Italian Smooch was the pick for the lot, while Lemon & mint Julep was strictly decent. The frozen mango margarita did not go down well with any of us.

AK Choco 47 – The chocolate shake.

The Fruit Pastry Shake

Italian Smooch

Lemon and mint Julep

Frozen Mango Margarita

Bruschetta Chicken Arabiatta and for vegetarians a Bruschetta layered with grilled cottage cheese was ordered, surprisingly the veg one went down better with all three of us while Chicken one was not bad at all as well. Stuffed Mushrooms that we ordered were quite a disappointment with no taste in the filling, while I also thought that batter in which they were coated and fried could have been better.

Bruschetta with Cottage Cheese layering

Another look at the Cottage cheese Bruschetta (vegetarian)

Chicken Arabiata Bruschetta

Stuffed Mushrooms – did not like them much.

We got excited seeing the Tacos in the menu, have never eaten them outside India so would not know what authentic are, and wherever I have eaten them in India, have got a different version. Different shells, different fillings, different sauces. So was not surprised when the taco that was served to us by El Posto was something I was not able to identify. But then who gives a damn about the appearances. One bite into the fish taco, I knew it was a gluttonous beast and I should not be eating that however I just could not stop. If fish one was good, then the vegetarian version was extremely good. They put a Tikki inside it, which I liked because of the spices used in it, just added that punch to the Taco for me, or maybe I am too desi and love my food Indianised. Fyi – They use the same Tikki / Patty in their burger which is priced at Rs.45 only (Bakery Section).

Vegetarian Taco – LOVED it!

Fish Tacos

Closer look at the Fish Tacos

Though none of us is really a salad person, however we thought we would give it a shot as there was a 5 cheese salad on the menu and how can I say no to cheese. The salad came with Apples, Kiwi and Lettuce amongst other things however after much fishing all the pieces of the cheese that I got were of the same type and even that was too brittle. Not sure which one was that though. Another disappointment for sure.

They have a decent selection of pizzas, however the ones that excited us were their Indiana range. Chicken Indiana and Paneer Indiana, basically paneer given an Indian twist. Due to our limited appetite and taking liberty of our invited status, we ordered half and half of each. half topped with paneer and other half with chicken. Twist was not only in the toppings, its was also in the base sauce, which I was told made with mix of some kind of cheese and mint.

Salad : Guess the lowest part of the evening.

Combo of Chicken and Paneer Indiana Pizza

Fettuccine pasta in creamy pasta sauce with Buns and Garlic bread.

Pesto pasta that we ordered was not the usual one that I was used to. This one came with white sauce and pesto, on asking we were told that this was a customization that they had to do for this part of Delhi, as people just did not appreciate the normal pesto pasta. Oh Well! we Dilliwaalas do love our cream and cheese don’t we? That said the taste itself was quite nice and it came with two types of breads – Usual Garlic breads and mini buns, which were baked in-house only.

By this time we were about to give up, however the fighter inside us told us that we can eat more, and we need to eat more so that we can bring out all the food for you good folks.. ;-). So to fight on next came Prawn in peri peri sauce and a Risotto with mushrooms. Risotto came in the last, and by that time were we quite full and hence were not able to do justice to it, so I had rather not talk about it here.

Risotto with mushrooms

The prawns were de-shelled jumbo prawns, have not tasted much of Peri peri sauce so cannot comment on it, however they came with a very nice side of Mashed potatoes and I loved the fact that chef had added peas to them. Not sure if its a usual practice or the idea comes from another desi mind.

Peri Peri Prawns

Mashed potatoes and vegetables with the prawns.

Now came the moment of reckoning – time for DESSERTS! We decided to bypass all usual Chocolate truffles and fudges and ordered Banoffee Pie along with the Red Velvet cake. The pie was nothing much to talk about, however the Red Velvet cake just blew our minds. It was like a perfect layer to seal of a gluttonous meal, the layer after which you feel that you have reached it. The orgasmic state if I may say so. Its was velvety smooth and the frosting took the icing of the cake, though on the sweeter side, they attributed it to one of the three cheeses used in making the frosting and if they had to make it less sweeter, it would loose its charm. And I see no reason why I would want that to happen.

Red Velvet Cake – The Star of the evening.

Banoffee Pie

To conclude it, its a new place with its own set of teething problems, the owner did mention about the staff issues as East Delhi is a difficult place to get good staff. However they seem to be doing very decent food, would not compare it to the best in Delhi, however it does offer an excellent option in the area it is located. Brilliant variety though the prices are on the higher side.

Address :
El Posto, 36-37, Aditya Mega Mall, Karkardooma, Delhi

Connect with me on Twitter : Sh_Ager

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Author: Shashank

CFE – Cheap Food Enthusiast Entrepreneur by birth, hippie by heart he is here just because he loves to eat. This adventurous biker is constantly looking for new avenues to satisfy his insatiable hunger for food & life. Though he loves sugar dense food, there is nothing sugar coated about him- brutally honest with his words, he often ruffles feathers with his stark naked opinions about food, fancy restaurants & orthodox ideas.
View all posts by Shashank

Wow lovely spread, Shashank. Definately worth your visit. Talking about Pasta, I too make my Pesto pasta with White Sauce and cheese. I just put little pesto, just enuf to get flavor as too much pesto tends to make pasta bitter when mixed with white sauce.

Finally, read this blog 😛 superbly written! And if not for anything else, I might go to this place for that killer red velvet cake! *_* And yes, running such a place in East Delhi is an achievement in itself!